(Originally written January
20, 2007 Christian ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses Yahoo Group)
I had not seen Jehovah's Witnesses in
my neighborhood for the longest time. Usually what I see are the ones
from the Spanish speaking Kingdom Halls and they come to my door and just ask
if I speak Spanish, which I really can't carry on a very good conversation
in. So they always go away, since their first language is Spanish, and
mine is English. So needless to say, I was quite surprised to get a knock
on my door today and find some English speaking JWs!
They seemed to be a nice
couple in their early to mid-30s or so. They introduced themselves as Kim
and Ken. Anyway, when I opened the door to them, since I don't have a
screen door, I invited them to come in. I told them I couldn't stand there
with the door open since I had pet cats and didn't want them to escape
outside. So they came in.
Ken presented the
January 1st Watchtower and the January Awake magazines to me. He talked
about a time that there would be no sickness and death and asked me if I
believed in that. I replied, "Well of course, I believe in a time
that there will be no sickness or death, I believe in the promises from the
Bible that Jesus Christ gave to us, by the sacrifice of His own life.”
They looked at me with a
surprised look and said, "Do you read the Bible?" To which I
replied, "Well, I've been reading the Bible a very long time and I believe
in reading it chapter by chapter, verse by verse.” Ken replied that the
Watchtower magazine has scripture referenced so that one can understand the
Bible completely without having to read the whole thing because the Bible is so
hard to read. I told him that I had no trouble reading the Bible and that
I believed in reading it independently without the help of commentaries or
other types of books. I told him that I believed that it is very
dangerous to read scripture out of context because you can get an incorrect meaning
from just doing a "hodge-podge" of scripture. I told him that I was
involved in a Bible study where I was going over the book of John with another
lady who is a new Christian. We just sit there and read the text and
discuss what Jesus meant when he said various things about Himself.
I began referring to
areas within the book of John concerning Jesus and every time He said "I
am". I asked if they knew that there are 7 I AMs in the book of John. Of
course they said no. I mentioned how Jesus said "I am the bread of
life." I asked them if they knew that Bethlehem means House of Bread.
(I knew that they didn't know that!) I talked about how Jesus spoke with
the Jews and how the Pharisees listened to him, ultimately becoming angry and
accusing Jesus of having a demon. In fact, those Pharisees were trying to
attribute the miracles of Jesus to Satan! I went on a little more
concerning things that Jesus said and did while He was on Earth.
Notice how I was
handling them. I was getting them out of their own script so that I could
speak and have my say without them replying to me with their canned answers
from the Watchtower literature. I did not let them control the
conversation. I talked to them about things they probably never really stopped
to think about because it's not taught in their literature and at the Kingdom
Hall. Not once did they try to stop me and try to tell me about “Jehovah’s
Kingdom.”
It is very important if
you decide to speak to JWs that you get them off the set path and script that
they are on. I did NOT discuss their doctrines with them, because
they would have been back on the same old track. Instead, they were caught off
guard and off track. This is a good way of getting them to think for themselves
and not revert to their intended script.
They really didn't know
what to say to me. They said that they never meet people in their door to
door work who know so much about the Bible. I told them that because most
people probably don't study the Bible the way my friends and I do. My
circle of friends are very well versed in the Bible and we read and
discuss it frequently. My husband had taught adult Sunday school for many
years and so we discuss the Bible very frequently at home.
They asked what church I
attended and I told them the name of my church. Kim asked, "Is that
church in Downey?" (town where I live) And I told her yes, the
church has Bible studies after their main Sunday service and during the week. They
told me that they didn't know that churches had such Bible study. You
should have seen the looks on their faces. The Watchtower teaches their
followers that Christians are absolutely clueless so that was the reason for
their surprise. Also, it is sad to say, but many Christians just refuse to talk
with the Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door.
So then they asked me if
I still wanted the magazines. I said, "Well only if they are free.”
So they said, well yes, they are free, and so he handed them over. I told
them to come again if they are in the neighborhood. I never did see them again
after that, but hopefully I gave them a lot to think about and perhaps someday
they will be back.
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